The present invention relates to a shift device for setting the traveling mode of a vehicle in response to the shift operation performed by the driver.
As one type of the shift levers of vehicles, such as automobiles, there is a shift lever that is configured to automatically return to its home position in a state in which no force is exerted thereto by the driver. This type of shift lever is also referred to as a joystick lever.
In some of vehicles equipped with this type of shift lever, the traveling mode thereof is set to a neutral mode in the case that the shift lever is held at its neutral position for more than a specified time (for example, 1 sec).
A technique for canceling an auto-parking function in the case that the shift operation is performed according to the operation pattern specified as the decryption code is disclosed in JP-A-2010-190311.
In such a vehicle as described above, the driver trying to set the traveling mode to the neutral mode is required to continuously hold the shift lever at the neutral position against the force of returning to the home position. It is assumed that this kind of operation is difficult to be performed accurately in such a case that the driver is in a flurry, and there is a fear that it is difficult to set the traveling mode to the neutral mode quickly.
The technique disclosed in JP-A-2010-190311 is primarily intended to cancel the auto-parking function although the traveling mode is eventually set to the neutral mode in response to the shift operation performed according to the operation pattern specified as the decryption code.
Furthermore, the technique disclosed in JP-A-2010-190311 is developed to solve a problem that the auto-parking function adversely affects work on production line, and the operation pattern specified as the decryption code is configured by the combination of operations not performed during ordinary traveling. As an embodiment described in JP-A-2010-190311, an operation pattern in which a button switch is pressed a threshold number of times Nth (for example, three times) or more in a period after the shift lever is held at its N-range position and until a threshold time Tth (for example, 15 sec) elapses is used as “the operation pattern specified as the decryption code.” In other words, the shift operation performed according to the operation pattern specified as the decryption code cannot be easily performed by the driver who is in a flurry wishing and trying to change the traveling mode to the neutral mode.